For one fuch Cafe as one of thefe, there are ten, where a Man, to keep up a Farce of Retinue and Grandeur within his own House, fhall fhrink at the Expectation of furly Demands at his Doors. The Debtor is the Creditor's Criminal, and all the Officers of Power and State, whom we behold make fo great a Figure, are no other than fo many Perfons in Authority to make good his Charge against him. Human Society depends upon his having the Vengeance Law allots him; and the Debtor owes his Liberty to his Neighbour, as much as the Murderer does his Life to his Prince.

OUR Gentry are, generally fpeaking, in Debt and many Families have put it into a Kind of Method of being fo from Generation to Generation. The Father mortgages when the Son is very Young; and the Boy is to marry as foon as he is at Age to redeem it, and find Portions for his Sifters. This, forfooth, is no great Inconvenience to him; for he may Wench, keep a publick Table, or feed Dogs, like a worthy English Gentleman, till he has out-run half of his Estate, and leave the fame Incumbrance upon his Firft-born, and fo on, till one Man of more Vigour than ordinary goes quite through the Estate, or fome Man of Senfe comes into it, and fcorns to have an Estate in Partnership, that is to fay, liable to the Demand or Infult of any Man living.There is my Friend Sir ANDREW, tho' for many Years a great and general Trader, was never the Defendant in a Law-Suit, in all the Perplexit of Bufinefs, and the Iniquity of Mankind at prefent: No one had any Colour for the leaft Complaint against his Dealings with him. This is certainly as uncommon, and in its Proportion as laudable in a Citizen, as it is in a General never to have fuffered a Difadvantage in Fight. How different from this Gentleman is Jack Truepenny, who has been an old Acquaintance of Sir ANDREW and my felf from Boys, but could never learn our Caution. Jack has a whorish unrefifting good Nature, which makes him incapable of having a Property in any Thing His Fortune, his Reputation, his Time, and his Capacity, are at any Man's Service that comes firft. When he was at School, he was whipped thrice a Week for Faults he took upon him to excufe others; fince he

came into the Bufinefs of the World, he has been arrested twice or thrice a Year for Debts he had nothing to do with, but as Surety for others; and I remember when a Friend of his had fuffered in the Vice of the Town, all the Phyfick his Friend took was conveyed to him by Fack, and infcribed, A Bolus or an Electuary for Mr. Truepenny'. Jack had a good Eftate left him, which came to nothing; because he believed all who pretended to Demands upon it. This Eafinefs and Credulity deftroy all the other Merit he has ; and he has all his Life been a Sacrifice to others, without ever receiving Thanks, or doing one good Action.

I will end this Difcourfe with a Speech which I heard Fack make to one of his Creditors, (of whom he deferved gentler Ufage) after lying a whole Night in Custody at his Suit.

• Good you have done me, in letting me fee there is fuch ". a Man as you in the World. I am obliged to you for the Diffidence I fhall have all the rest of my Life: Ifhall hereafter truft no Man fo far as to be in his Debt.

R

N° 83.

W

Tuesday, June 5.

--- Animum pictura pafcit inani.

Virg.

HEN the Weather hinders me from taking my Diverfions without Doors, I frequently make a little Party with two or three felect Friends, to vifit any Thing curious that may be feen under Covert. My principal Entertainments of this Nature are Pictures, infomuch that when I have found the Weather fet in to be very bad, I have taken a whole Day's Journey to see a Gallery that is furnifhed by the Hands of great Mafters, By this means, when the Heavens are filled with

Clouds,

Clouds, when the Earth fwims in Rain, and all Nature wears a low'ring Countenance, I withdraw my felf from these uncomfortable Scenes into the vifionary Worlds of Art; where I meet with fhining Landskips, gilded Triumphs, beautiful Faces, and all those other Objects that fill the Mind with gay Ideas, and difperfe that gloominefs which is apt to hang upon it in those dark difconfolate Seasons.

I was fome Weeks ago in a Course of thefe Diver fions; which had taken fuch an entire Poffeffion of my Imagination, that they formed in it a fhort Morning's Dream, which I fhall communicate to my Reader, rather as the first Sketch and Outlines of a Vifion, than as a fi nished Piece.

I dreamt that I was admitted into a long fpacious Gab lery, which had one Side covered with Pieces of all the famous Painters who are now living, and the other with the Works of the greatest Masters that are dead.

ON the Side of the Living, I faw feveral Perfons bufie in Drawing, Colouring, and Defigning; on the Side of the Dead Painters, I could not difcover more than one Perfon at Work, who was exceeding flow in his Motions, and wonderfully nice in his Touches.

I was refolved to examine the feveral Artifts that stood before me, and accordingly applied my felf to the Side of the Living. The firft I obferved at Work in this Part of the Gallery was VANITY, with his Hair tied behind him in a Ribbon, and dreffed like a Frenchman. All the Faces he drew were very remarkable for their Smiles, and a certain fmirking Air, which he bestowed indifferently on every Age and Degree of either Sex. The Toujours Gai appeared even in his Judges, Biftops, and Privy-Counfellors: In a Word, all his Men were Petits Maitres, and all his Women Coquets. The Drapery of his Figures was extreamly well-fuited to his Faces, and was made up of all the glaring Colours that could be mixt together; every Part of the Drefs was in a Flutter, and endeavoured to distinguish it self above the reft.

ON the left Hand of VANITY flood a laborious Workman, who I found was his humble Admirer, and

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copied

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copied after him. He was dreffed like a German, and had a very hard Name that founded fomething like STUPIDITY.

THE third Artift that I looked over was FANTASQUE, dreffed like a Venetian Scaramouch. He had an excellent Hand at Chimera, and dealt very much in Diftor-tions and Grimaces. He would fometimes affright himself with the Phantoms that flowed from his Pencil. In short the most elaborate of his Pieces was at best but a terrifying Dream; and one could fay nothing more of his finest Figures, than that they were agreeable Monsters.

THE fourth Perfon I examined, was very remarkable for his hafty Hand, which left his Picture fo unfinished, that the Beauty in the Picture (which was defigned to continue as a Monument of it to Pofterity) faded fooner than in the Perfon after whom it was drawn. He made fo much Hafte to dispatch his Bufinefs, that he neither gave himself Time to clean his Pencils, nor mix his Co-lours. The Name of this expeditious Workman was AVARICE.

NOT far from this Artist I faw another of a quite different Nature, who was dreffed in the Habit of a Dutchman, and known by the Name of INDUSTRY. His Figures were wonderfully laboured: If he drew the Portraiture of a Man, he did not omit a single Hair in his Face; if the Figure of a Ship, there was not a Rope among the Tackle that escaped him. He had likewife hung a great Part of the Wall with Night-Pieces, that feemed to fhew themselves by the Candles which were lighted up in feveral Parts of them; and were fo inflamed by the Sun-fhine which accidentally fell upon them, that at firft Sight I could fcarce forbear crying out, Fire.

THE five foregoing Artifts were the moft confiderable on this Side the Gallery; there were indeed feveral others whom I had not Time to look into. One of them, however, I could not forbear obferving, who was very bufy in retouching the finest Pieces, though he produced no Originals of his own. His Pencil aggravated every Feature that was before over-charged, loaded every Defect, and poifoned every Colour it touched. Though this Workman did. fo much Mischef on the Side of the

Living, he never turned his Eye towards that of the Dead. His Name was ENVY.

HAVING taken a curfory View of one side of the Gallery, I turned my felf to that which was filled by the Works of those great Masters that were dead; when immediately I fancied my felf ftanding before a Multitude of Spectators, and thousands of Eyes looking upon me at once; for all before me appeared fo like Men and Women, that I almost forgot they were Pictures. Raphael's Figures flood in one Row, Titian's in another, Guido Rheni's in a third. One Part of the Wall was peopled by Hannibal Carrache, another by Correggio, and another by Rubens. To be fhort, there was not a great Mafter among the Dead who had not contributed to the Embellishment of this Side of the Gallery. The Perfons that owed their Being to these several Mafters, appeared all of them to be real and alive, and differed among one another only in the Variety of their Shapes, Complexions, and Cloaths; fo that they looked like different Nations of the fame Species.

OBSERVING an old Man (who was the fame Perfon I before-mentioned, as the only Artist that was at work on this Side of the Gallery) creeping up and down from one Picture to another, and retouching all the fine Pieces that stood before me, I could not but be very attentive to all his Motions. I found his Pencil was fo very light, that it worked imperceptibly, and after a thoufand Touches, fcarce produced any vifible Effect in the Picture on which he was employed. However, as he bufied himself inceflantly, and repeated Touch after Touch without Reft or Intermiffion, he wore off infenfibly every little difagreeable Glofs that hung upon a Figure : He alfo added fuch a beautiful Brown to the Shades, and Mellowness to the Colours, that he made every Picture appear more perfect than when it came fresh from the Mafter's Pencil. I could not forbear looking upon the Face of this ancient Workman, and immediately, by the long Lock of Hair upon his Forehead, discovered him to be TIME.

WHETHER it were because the Thread of my Dream was at an End I cannot tell, but upon my taking a Survey of this imaginary old Man, my Sleep left me.

C

Wednesday,